Digital Only Subscription
Read the digital SMART Edition of The Times-Tribune on your PC or mobile device, and have 24/7 access to breaking news, local sports, contests, and more at thetimes-tribune.com or on our mobile apps.

Digital Services
Have news alerts sent to your mobile device, read the Smart Edition sign up for daily newsletters, activate your all access, enter contests, take quizzes, download our mobile apps and see the latest e-circulars.

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Joseph P. McDonald manned the switchboard at Fort Shafter in Hawaii when he received the alarming message that radar had detected a large number of planes approaching from the north, heading fast for Oahu.
(read more)

Motorists who use the Pango mobile app to pay at parking meters in Scranton will get reimbursed for any inadvertent overcharges since Sept. 1, the new operator of the city’s parking system said.
(read more)

About 500 plush dogs and cats are spread out with help from Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Corey Cavalieri on Thursday at the Aaron Center in Dickson City, with more stuffed animals to be donated in the next few weeks.
(read more)

Article Tools

Geisinger Community Medical Center CEO Robert Steigmeyer talks to the Times-Tribune editorial board Wednesday about the region's health care industry.

In the year since Community Medical Center joined Geisinger Health System, a dramatically different health care landscape has leaders at the hospital calling Scranton a national "laboratory" for profit and nonprofit competition.

During a Times-Tribune editorial board meeting Wednesday, officials with Geisinger sidestepped the question of whether Scranton can sustain three different hospitals. Instead, GCMC's Anthony Aquilina, D.O., chief medical officer, and Robert Steigmeyer, CEO and president, framed the community in terms of health care systems.

"This area can support two health systems," said Dr. Aquilina.

Geisinger's nonprofit system and Commonwealth Health's for-profit system have absorbed the community's three hospitals, until recently all financially struggling independent nonprofit hospitals.

Tennessee-based Community Health Systems - one of the largest publicly traded hospital companies in the country with 135 hospitals in 29 states - created an umbrella company in 2012, Commonwealth Health, to connect the eight hospitals it has acquired in the region since 1999, including Regional Hospital of Scranton and Moses Taylor Hospital.

Since 2005, Danville-based Geisinger Health System has merged with hospitals in Northeast Pennsylvania, including CMC. While having many hospitals, Geisinger leaders continually stress the need for giving patients the appropriate treatment in the best location at the right time.

Mr. Steigmeyer said Scranton hospitals transitioning to nonprofit and for-profit systems around the same time makes for a unique situation.

"I think Scranton serves as a laboratory for for-profit and nonprofit health care in America," Mr. Steigmeyer said. "It'll be interesting to watch."

Generally, the medical community has lauded improvements in both of the city's hospital systems, which have helped replace and modernize aging equipment and infrastructure and recruited more physicians and staff.

Both hospital systems have added physicians and staff to the area. Since the Geisinger merger, GCMC has added 419 full-time jobs and still has 163 positions to fill, said Mr. Steigmeyer.

"We're working aggressively to fill the positions," he said.

Physicians added to the hospital since the merger include those in the following specialities: neurosurgery, neurology, cardiothoracic surgery, trauma surgeons, hospitalists and gynecology and pediatric cardiology, neurology and gastroenterology.

Geisinger has announced plans for $125.7 million of $160 million committed by the health system to the Scranton area - $80 million for facility projects, $25.7 million for physician office space and $20 million for information technology improvements. Part of the merger with CMC, Geisinger agreed to complete the upgrades within seven years.

The majority of GCMC's campus was built in 1967, with facility additions in 1990 and 2005. Construction on the main campus will begin in the summer, Mr. Steigmeyer said. After an anticipated 24 months of new construction to add 150,000 square feet of space, the hospital also will undergo about 18 months of renovations.

"It's going to be a very busy time for construction," Mr. Steigmeyer said, anticipating construction continuing through 2016.

Also related to the upgrades, Geisinger's Lake Scranton primary care practice is estimated to move in 2014 to the Mount Pleasant Corporate Center at Seventh Avenue and West Linden Street.

Contact the writer: rward@timesshamrock.com, @rwardTT on Twitter.

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.